A Brother's Price by Wen Spencer

Author:Wen Spencer
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Fantasy
ISBN: 9780786564484
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
Published: 2009-04-25T10:00:00+00:00

Eldest Whistler nodded through their explanation as she wordlessly studied the paper. When it was clear that they had no more to say, she shook her head. “It isn't cant. It looks like cant, but it isn't.”

“Are you sure?” Raven tapped a square with two wheel-like circles at the bottom of it. “This is wagon. Everyone knows that much cant.”

“Yes, that's wagon.” Eldest went on to name a few other words that even Ren could make out just by the pictures. “There's lots of commonly known cant in it, but the rest—it's like someone made up pictures for the words they didn't know.”

“Are you sure the cant hasn't changed since your grandmothers knew it?” Ren asked, since it had been over fifty years since the Whistlers were part of the Sisters of the Night.

Eldest shook her head. “The Sisterhood assumes that anyone can learn enough cant to fake a message, so cant has a second level which acts like a security check. There are things like the number of pictures per line, and a certain set of words that have to appear at least once in the message. Sometimes there's a series of items listed—like five gil, two pistols, and seven quinces—where the items aren't important, only that all but the last number add up to the last number. Five and two are seven. Written cant started out as a way to communicate with illiterate members of the Sisterhood, but it evolved into a means to do business without having to worry about the authenticity of the message.”

“So someone is throwing suspicion on the Sisters of the Night.”

“Or just stealing a good idea,” Eldest said. “Part of this is a set of directions on where to take the cargo. Mill on Dunning Street. I can't read the rest, though this part might be a woman's cant name: Black Hat.”

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